Disposable containers for packaging, distributing, displaying or otherwise housing consumer items, especially perishable foods, are becoming increasingly important. Historically, perishable products were brought to market and sold quickly to avoid loss due to exposure to natural elements causing ripeness and eventual decay.
The advent of plastics resulted in many products being wrapped or packaged in plastic, both in the form of flexible plastic bags and solid plastic containers. The use of plastics in the modern-day convenience food industry has significantly improved the “shelf life” of perishable products, allowing both merchants and their customers to store the products for longer periods of time, resulting in substantial savings, and greater distribution.
In addition, consumers may prefer to visually inspect the food product within such containers prior to purchase. Thus, fabricating containers from clear see-through plastics is desirable. For example, packaging provided for bakery goods or agriculture products has often been in the form of clear, plastic clamshell packaging, because, among other things, such clear, plastic clamshell packaging, provides a baked-on-the-premises or homegrown image that grocery retailers have found to be especially appealing to consumers.
Typically, plastic containers will include a fairly rigid lid and base, although they may be subject to some amount of flexure. Ideally, the lid should be capable of properly and effectively sealing the container, yet the container should be constructed so that the lid is relatively easy to remove, and in some circumstances, replace, since it may be expected that the container and lid would be reused. In addition, the lid should provide adequate space for product branding and meeting regulatory product identification (e.g., identification of the product, place of product origin, weight, etc.) in the form of a label that may comprise paper, plastic or both. Typically, these containers are either pre-labeled or labeled after the product is filled in a secondary application.
The advancement in the aforementioned types of containers has significantly increased availability of healthy food options, and decreased the cost and spoilage of fruits and vegetables; however, their existence has also increased the amount of rigid plastic present in our waste stream each year. The amount of non-recycled rigid plastic containers has reached epidemic levels, and has led to many cities and states in North America and Europe creating new recycling guidelines and laws both restricting use and attaching monetary penalties for over use.
It has been found that viable options to reduce the amount of rigid plastic used each year are few, relatively expensive, and often impractical taking into consideration the initial capital investment in equipment needed to execute the conversion. In addition, these solutions have often lacked re-closeable features resulting in comestible products becoming dried out, especially in circumstances where more than one serving of a comestible product is contained therein. Moreover, these solutions have failed to allow stacking of the containers within consumer refrigerators.
To address these problems, one solution has been to utilize “lidding” film. Lidding film may seal a rigid container without requiring the use of a rigid lid. For example, lidding film is currently used to seal microwaveable dinners in a rigid container. However, such use of lidding film is characterized by a number of problems. For example, the equipment needed to heat seal film to a rigid container may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and typically runs at half the speed of current rigid automated closure lines. Another disadvantage of using lidding film is that it is typically not resealable. Moreover, it is very expensive to ventilate lidding film and align the resulting perforations to increase the breathability of comestible products in the container. In light of the foregoing, utilizing lidding film, particularly in the fresh food industry, would be difficult and costly.
Another example of a film-based solution is the flow wrap bag. For more than a decade, European produce companies have used the flow wrap bag as a combination of rigid elements combined with film elements as a wrapping solution. When compared to a traditional clamshell of similar shape and size, the flow wrap bag results in the reduction of rigid plastic utilization. However, this solution is characterized by its own disadvantages, including but not limited to, the fact that the film bag requires an automated machine for application and once opened cannot be closed like a rigid container.
Each of the aforementioned solutions lacks any rigid structure within their film components, and as such, the act of resealing or closing may be difficult. Moreover, unsupported films may convey a cheap or flimsy feel to the consumer. Based at least upon the foregoing, use of film components with rigid structures would seem to be undesirable for companies seeking to preserve their brand name and the perceived value of the food products within.
Although each of the two solutions mentioned above may be used for a centralized processing facility, or a single growing footprint or region, there are considerable limitations and disadvantages when utilizing these film-based solutions across a large growing footprint, such as across North America and/or Europe. The major disadvantage to these types of solutions is the machinery needed to apply the film. It simply isn't practical or cost effective to transport expensive machinery from one growing region to another, which might require growers to have multiple machines in place and running as one growing region is winding down and another is just starting to produce. Produce items must be packaged quickly, transported to coolers to preserve freshness, and then shipped to retail within hours, so flexibility and speed are critical.
The current preferred non-film packaging solution is the single piece hinged clamshell, and although effective and less costly then the film solution, it adds millions of extra pounds of plastic to the waste stream each and every year. Additionally, these hinged containers are prone to popping open at retail, often resulting in slip and fall accidents as fruit like tomatoes and blueberries roll across produce isles. As a result, many retailers have made it mandatory for growers to apply a secondary tape application across the lid and base of a container to ensure that the container won't inadvertently pop open. Yet, these hinged containers often pop open on automated packing lines just prior to the tape station causing expensive shut downs and restarts of packing equipment and scales.
Thus, there is a compelling interest in the development of containers having: consumer-preferable design elements, such as: tamper evidence, sealed containers that don't pop open, recloseability features that are reliable and easy to operate, that use a considerably less plastic and that remain friendly to pack, stack, close and open.